1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solid-shaped detergent.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The solid-shaped detergent has merits of not necessitating to measure, easy handling, and being compact, taking up a little storage space. An example thereof is a tablet detergent prepared by compressing or densifying a usual detergent, which has been marketed in Europe and the like.
However, these solid-shaped detergents do not sufficiently satisfy two important features as manufactures, i.e. having sufficient mechanical strength during drying, and rapidly distributing and dissolving when supplied in water. For instance, European Patent Publication 0711828 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 10-183199 each discloses a tablet detergent having improved dissolubility which can be molded at a low compression pressure, the tablet detergent being prepared by compression-molding after coating a detergent particle, or at least a part thereof with a binder, and a manufacturing process thereof.
In addition, WO98/24873 discloses a tablet detergent prepared by forming a shell with a coating agent such as a dicarboxylic acid on a compressed detergent composition. These tablet detergents are effective as a detergent composition having improved disintegration-promoting property and dissolubility, as compared to a composition obtained simply by directly tableting the constituent particle, or the like.
However, the disintegration-promoting property and the dissolubility of the solid-shaped detergent are greatly dependent upon the disintegration-promoting property and the dissolubility of the detergent particle itself constituting the detergent. In addition, even though the most important feature in the washing operation is to release detergent components in the detergent particle into washing water, the properties or structure of the detergent particle itself has not been sufficiently studied. For instance, in none of the marketed solid-shaped detergents mentioned above, the disintegration-promoting property and the dissolubility of the detergent particle itself are not sufficient, so that the disintegration-promoting property and the dissolubility of the solid-shaped detergent itself are consequently unsatisfactory.
An object of the present invention is to provide a fast-dissoluble, solid-shaped detergent having sufficient mechanical strength during drying, and being capable of quickly dissolving in water after supply.
The above and other objects of the present invention will be apparent from the following description.